Abstract On behalf of the NIA Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (RCMARs), with leadership by the RCMAR Coordinating Center (CC), we request funding for an annual series of five scientific research conferences. The content of the series will focus on "Strategies to Advance the National Research Council's Agenda on Minority Aging". Key themes and agenda topics will be selected for each conference from the research agenda developed by the National Research Council (NRC), "Understanding Racial and Ethnic Differences in Health in Late Life" (2004). This conference series provides a translational opportunity to move the NRC's 18 recommendations into the next steps of research development. The 2008 conference will address minority research project recruitment and retention, a cross cutting issue for all NRC recommendations and a topic that the RCMARs have made important contributions to understanding and improving. In a recent analysis for the NIA, we found that faculty from the RCMAR program had produced 78 journal articles and provided 17 scientific presentations on these topics. The 2009 conference will address measurement and methods issues in minority aging research. From recruitment and methods, we move to the issue of intervention development in 2010. For the 2011 conference we will feature the issue of analytic techniques. The 2012 conference will focus on writing skills development and will address the links between macro (policy) systems and individual factors in minority aging research. Thus the five-year series mirrors the key ingredients in translational research: recruitment, methods, intervention development, analysis, and writing for publication and to inform policy. Each of the conferences will generate a number of significant outcomes and products, including: research development training for a minimum of 50 faculty/year;skill building products by each attendee;print and web- based resource materials;video streaming programs;one scientific publication submission per year based on the conference. Relevance to Public Health The reduction of health status disparities is one of the two major goals for Healthy People 2010 (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2000). This conference series promotes skills, knowledge and abilities of researchers to address health disparities in their work.